At about 10:51 eastern time, a Cessna 172S crashed while landing at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. The student pilot was not injured. The pilot departed from runway 4 and felt the trim forcing the nose of the airplane down. She informed the control tower that she was having difficulty and the controller cleared her to land on runway 32. She attempted to manually control the trim, but was unsuccessful. She put both hands on the control wheel and activated the autopilot red disconnect button with negative results. She said she knew she was not flying the airplane. She did not attempt to turn the autopilot off at the control head because she had not received any training in how to do so. The airplane touched down on the runway and began to porpoise. It veered to the right of the runway about 500 feet from the end of the runway.
Nov. 11, Sarasota, Fla. / Cessna Skyhawk
At about 10:51 eastern time, a Cessna 172S crashed while landing at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. The student pilot was not injured. The pilot departed from runway 4 and felt the trim forcing the nose of the airplane down. She informed the control tower that she was having difficulty and the controller cleared her to land on runway 32. She attempted to manually control the trim, but was unsuccessful. She put both hands on the control wheel and activated the autopilot red disconnect button with negative results. She said she knew she was not flying the airplane. She did not attempt to turn the autopilot off at the control head because she had not received any training in how to...
Key Takeaways:
- A Cessna 172S crashed during landing at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, with the student pilot remaining uninjured.
- The accident was caused by an uncontrollable trim issue forcing the aircraft's nose down, which the pilot attributed to an autopilot malfunction.
- The pilot's attempts to disconnect the autopilot were unsuccessful, and she did not try to turn it off at the control head due to lack of training.
- The airplane porpoised upon touchdown before veering off the runway.
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